African American Slayer

[Buffy Summers]

There is one mainstream conservative news outlet in the US. All the others are liberal leaning. Hollywood is by far mostly liberal leaning. Probably the best thing that could happen to the show would be for Fox News to call for a ban on it.

 

[Faith 2019]

Why would the vampire have to be Black? the vampires could be any race?

That is true, but when Buffy the Vampire Slayer did run from 1997 to 2003, the vampires were in balk white, and the demons were in balk white -- and Sunnydale was in California were it has the greatest diversity with any state. The only place with a higher level of diversity, is New York City but that is a different story. If the new series is going to be equal to the one we understand, with a African American slayer, it is just a high and rational argument that the whole of the characters would be African American.

 

[Spanky]

The only place with a higher level of diversity, is New York City

How the hell does NYC have a higher level of diversity than California?

with a African American slayer, it is just a high and rational argument that the whole of the characters would be African American.

It may be a high argument but it's not rational. In fact I think a rational argument could be the reverse in that Buffy being the only one of color among the main cast and that the isolation she feels as a slayer is magnified and reflected by being the fish out of water as the "token black person" at an all white school.

 

[Faith 2019]

There is one mainstream conservative news outlet in the US. All the others are liberal leaning. Hollywood is by far mostly liberal leaning. Probably the best thing that could happen to the show would be for Fox News to call for a ban on it.

Fox News has never called themselves mainstream news in the first place. The old networks, CBS, ABC, NBC has been losing market share since the 1980's with so many cable networks taking market shares. With CBS, ABC and NBC, the internet or any print media really avoids any critical comments for or against with their 30 minute evening news broadcast. If the series does come back, it would be with the vast amount of almost countless cable networks. And with any cable company or satellite provider, you could be watching the new series or not -- as no provider is going to have hundreds of cable networks to be on the lineup. To avoid the problems I have talked about, whatever network willing to accept the new series would be a very minor cable network. If it comes back, it would be on a cable network with a smaller market share then when it was on WB and UPN. With a smaller market share, less people to watch the series, it would be less important then the series we already know.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Fox News has never called themselves mainstream news in the first place.

Okay, so that supports my point even more that it would have very little effect on the success of a new Buffy show.

 

[Faith 2019]

How the hell does NYC have a higher level of diversity than California?

Wikipedia - Demographics of New York City. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.

When Hollywood makes a movie about New York City, its a vast amount of first generation Americans being white of African American and they all speak English. Immigrants, were just going to hide them in Queens and the movies is all about Manhattan.

 

[Faith 2019]

Okay, so that supports my point even more that it would have very little effect on the success of a new Buffy show.

With the conservative media, the term mainstream media has been branded to be liberal. Because of that, nobody declares themselves mainstream media for the past twenty years. Since calling yourself mainstream media is so toxic, and there is no term to replace the name: so both political sides both believe any news media is politically bent leading to the hard right or the hard left. You can be in the media center, but you upset viewers on both political sides and you lose market share. Because of this, if your in the center, your media is getting smaller and your demographics is getting smaller. With swing voters in the political center, it was as high as 20% during the 1960's but today it is really only a few percentages.

With any new series, it will become more political then it was during 1997 to 2003. When Buffy the Vampire Slayer did come out it was designed for the teenager community, that for a vast amount who still did not have any solid political views. Teenagers today, are more politically involved with social media.

 

[Buffy Summers]

None of that means that a Black slayer will cause the show to be cancelled because Fox News shows a Black Slayer killing Black vampires.

 

[Faith 2019]

None of that means that a Black slayer will cause the show to be cancelled because Fox News shows a Black Slayer killing Black vampires.

If there was a black slayer and she is killing black vampires because black vampires are killing black people. If I was in Fox News or a different conservative media, I could be saying the show is for the African African community were it is showing black on black violence. Since the conservative media has been interested in crime in Chicago since the Obama Administration. The conservative media could be comparing the black on black violence with the new series and the black on black violence in Chicago. The conservative media could be saying that the African American community is interested in fantasy violence of black on black violence. Then the conservative media could be saying, that the African American community is more interested in fantasy violence with black on black violence then real violence within Chicago or any other urban city.

With that as the rational argument from the conservative media, the logical and rational argument from the African American community would be to say that the new series with a black slayer is racist. The other factor, the African American community are majority Christian as well. Comparing a black slayer killing a black vampire being debated as equal with real crimes dealing with black on black crime would be outrage. The safe and has more or less has become a trow away line, the new series would be declared as being racist. To stop the two being equal as being compare and contrast, the new series has to be defined as racist.

When the African American community declares the new black slayer is a racist character to the African American community, then the advertisers would be withdrawing their support for the series. Because they rather get out early then face a boycott of their product.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Wow. I honestly hope we haven't come to that yet.

 

[Faith 2019]

Wow. I honestly hope we haven't come to that yet.

It is better to spend $100,000 to do research on culture and society, to reconfirm cultural facts or alter common knowledge in a new application. Then it is to get a judgment from the court were you win and spent $50,000 in legal fees. Even with a positive outcome from a judge or jury trial, the reporting from the media will question why the organization in question got themselves into a position were it ended up with a verdict from a judge or jury. The blow back from the media and society itself can cost thousands or millions of dollars in bad faith action or actions from the organization in question.

 

[The Bronze]

Here's my predictions:

1. It probably won't get made.
2. If it does get made some people will moan about it being too diverse.
3. Some people will moan that it's not diverse enough.
4. No one will end up in court either way.
5. It won't be a patch on the original series.

 

[one eyed chicklet]

Here's my predictions:

1. It probably won't get made.
2. If it does get made some people will moan about it being too diverse.
3. Some people will moan that it's not diverse enough.
4. No one will end up in court either way.
5. It won't be a patch on the original series.

Yeah, I don't believe that Buffy has a big enough following for a new series to be successful. You would get a new audience with it but it wouldn't be enough to sustain itself. If anyone's seen what happened with Star Wars, I can see the exact same thing happening with Buffy. Firstly, to a lot of people on here, Buffy is something very dear to them and are probably rather nostalgic about, increasing its importance. If anything comes to challenge that, people are going to complain that it is too different, if it is trying to find its footing from Buffy people will complain that it is too similar. There isn't much way they can win. You're point about diversity rings true with star wars as well, many may take it as social justice pandering and filling in a quota. I'm interested to see what they do if it happens, however I doubt it will take off.
The other problem is that if it is going to take place after or during the time of the comics, you're going to run into issues with the Buffyverse canon and I would guess that at least half of the Buffy fans haven't read the comics so it would probably be rather confusing. In my opinion, I think they've waited too long to bring the Buffyverse back to TV with an all-new cast.

 

[Faith 2019]

Yeah, I don't believe that Buffy has a big enough following for a new series to be successful. You would get a new audience with it but it wouldn't be enough to sustain itself. If anyone's seen what happened with Star Wars, I can see the exact same thing happening with Buffy. Firstly, to a lot of people on here, Buffy is something very dear to them and are probably rather nostalgic about, increasing its importance. If anything comes to challenge that, people are going to complain that it is too different, if it is trying to find its footing from Buffy people will complain that it is too similar. There isn't much way they can win. You're point about diversity rings true with star wars as well, many may take it as social justice pandering and filling in a quota. I'm interested to see what they do if it happens, however I doubt it will take off.
The other problem is that if it is going to take place after or during the time of the comics, you're going to run into issues with the Buffyverse canon and I would guess that at least half of the Buffy fans haven't read the comics so it would probably be rather confusing. In my opinion, I think they've waited too long to bring the Buffyverse back to TV with an all-new cast.

In large parts I agree with you, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not Star Trek or Star Wars, and Buffyverse has a much smaller base. I feel the reason why Star Trek has a bigger base, because Kirk, McCoy and Spark were not fighting each other if they were in their right minds. They debated with each other, and disagreed from time to time. The first Star Trek movie came out in 1979, and the fans agree, it was a Star Trek movie in name only. Buffy was different, Buffy was fighting vampires and demons, and her friends and sister as well. True, that is interesting, but you get a bigger fan base if your not fighting your own people.

Star Trek fans also have role playing message boards in the past, and they also role play one on one with each other too. With it they work together and build long term friendships. Role playing like that is fun and interesting. If you try that with Buffy, and like myself being a woman and I would find it more interesting to role play as a slayer. If I was to find another woman, she too would want to role play as a slayer too. We talk about working together and debate about common interest with cannon with two slayers interacted with each other. Oh ya, Buffy and Faith were fighting each other so if we stay in the spirit of Buffy we need to fight each other too. Then you get two women, talking about role playing with each other and the goal is to fight each other. Let's see, this is not going to end well.

Star Trek and Star Wars, the fans can finds positive ways to work with each other even if their alter ego should show some level of conflict. If Buffy fans did the same as Star Trek and Star Wars, the cannon ideology would make it a zero sum game. Chess is a zero sum game and only a select group of people play regulated games with each other. Video games, are a zero sum game too but it also has the ability to work as a team as well.

True, any new series could have a group of slayers always working together and close friends like with Star Trek or Star Wars as the positive characters. But, in that community, would the Buffy fans accept not seeing any slayer verses slayer fighting?

 

[Buffy Summers]

I don’t care if they had Slayer vs Slayer fighting or not. But that really doesn’t have anything to do with Buffy being Black.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Whether or not the new Slayer is black, I just don't see this possible reboot attracting a large audience. Vampires aren't new to anyone nowadays, as they've been featured in other shows and on the big screen since Buffy's inception.

Also, times are so different now, what with social media giving every moron on earth the opportunity to complain about everything, including television shows. If this new Slayer is black, the writers will have to tip toe around most topics; because the Twitter mob WILL find a reason to call for a boycott if they feel she isn't "black enough" or "stereotypically black." The other glaring issue is that Joss' gift for incredible dialogue is one of the things that made Buffy so enjoyable. Without his involvement in the possible reboot, it will just be a bland imitation...and it will definitely suck.

This makes me wonder how the original show would've fared if social media was around back then.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

This makes me wonder how the original show would've fared if social media was around back then.

Spuffy vs Bangel would've still been a thing, a lot of conversation about shirtless Spike, lots of comments on how boring Riley is. I think the biggest debate would've been about Tillow.

 

[TarasBoyfriend]

I think a lot of people are overthinking this. Whatever race the slayer is, I want her to fight demons. I’m sure writers can tell unique stories involving race and that’s cool if they want. As long as she slays some vampires and the show is good, it’s not going to hurt anything.

 

[MasterBaderGins]

Is she gonna be token black or actually speak to a black experience of America? I don’t think diversity-washing characters from a white perspective is the greatest form of representation. I hope they go the new names, new characters route so the show runner can explore the emotional demons that actually speak to a black experience & it’s not just window dressing. One possibility I’ve dreamt up is a black Faith as the lead dealing with living in golden girl Buffy’s shadow (I’m thinking she stays dead in this timeline so we don’t have to deal with a character of Buffy who acts as a bit of an antagonist, just in terms of Faith’s pressure to live up to that legend.)

 

[MasterBaderGins]

Spuffy vs Bangel would've still been a thing, a lot of conversation about shirtless Spike, lots of comments on how boring Riley is. I think the biggest debate would've been about Tillow.

People loved Tillow. There were boards like these where people posted a lot even if tumblr wasn’t a thing (Mighty Big TV for example.) U pretty much nailed it though, complaining about Riley & arguing between Spuffy & Bangel. Oh & people really hated Dawn for some reason but thought she had really shiny hair.